The son of ʿArab Muḥammad Khan, Abū al-Ghāzī spent most of his early life in Urgench. When his father died and a dynastic struggle arose among Abū al-Ghāzī and his brothers for the succession to the throne, he was compelled to flee to the Ṣafavid court of Iran in the city of Isfahan, where he lived in exile from 1629 to 1639. While in exile he studied history, examining Persian and Arabic historical sources. In 1644/45, Abū al-Ghāzī finally succeeded to the throne of Khiva, reigning for about 20 years, carrying on intermittent wars with the Turkmens, the Uzbeks of Bukhara, the Kalmyks, Russia, and Iran.

The historical works for which he is most famous are Shajare-i Tarākime, or Şecere-i Terakime (1659; “The Genealogical Tree of the Turkmen”), written in Chagatai Turkish, mainly a compilation from the Persian historian Rashīd ad-Dīn (d. 1318) and the semilegendary oral traditions of the Turks, and the Shajare-i Turk (“The Genealogical Tree of the Turks”), left incomplete and finished by his son, Abū al-Muẓaffar Anūsha Muḥam mad Muḥammad Bahādur, in 1665. This work is mainly a history of the Shaybānid dynasty (mid-15th century to 1665); it is not considered reliable because the author wrote from memory without using sources. The introduction is interesting for relating traditional material on Genghis Khan and his sons. The work became well known in Europe by the 18th century through German, French, Russian, Latin, and English translations.